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EU CENTRAL ASIA STRATEGY

In a first for both the U.N. Security Council and the Central Asian region, Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov presided over a meeting of the council devoted to “Building Regional Partnership in Afghanistan and Central Asia as a Model to Link Security and Development.

From January 1st Kazakhstan has launched an unusual experiment. An International Financial Center has started its operation in the Republic. It is a huge and serious project followed by the President Nursultan Nazarbayev personally.

Implementation of the project on construction of the Rogun hydropower plant is ongoing and the first unit of the hydro station is planned to be put into operation this year, Minister of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan Usmonali Usmonzoda told.

The voice was low, almost soft-spoken. Yet the words of President Nursultan Nazarbayev – in both the United Nations Security Council and at a conference for the invited press – were spoken with a clear sense of purpose, and of his country’s newly prominent place in the world. The President’s appearances – the first since his last address to the UN General Assembly slightly more than two years ago – were only part of Kazakhstan’s month as Security Council president, the first for any of the Central Asian republics.

In 2017, China and Russia trumpeted the closeness of their relationship, calling it a historic highpoint. Xi Jinping has made good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin a priority, visiting Russia six times and meeting with Putin on 21 occasions since taking office.

Climate change, terrorism and the backlash against globalization are the three most significant challenges to civilization as we know it, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2018 in Davos, Switzerland.

Luke Coffey, Director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, believes Kazakhstan as the regional leader can help the United States play a role in bringing economic and security stability in Afghanistan.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) continued to support the Central Asian region in 2017 with a total investment of $1 billion. It has also resumed operations in Uzbekistan after a seven-year pause.

Sanat Kushkumbayev, Deputy Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KazISS), shared what problems will be raised during President Nursultan Nazarbayev and U.S. President Donald J. Trump at the White House. According to the expert, the key goal is to propel Kazakhstan-U.S. cooperation to the level of expanded strategic partnership.